Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electrical devices, and more particularly to electrical devices with longitudinal electrical conductor entries.
Description of the Related Art
Electrical distribution systems deliver power throughout a building from a power source to electrical wiring devices. Electrical wiring devices are connected to the electrical distribution system by way of wiring terminals, and deliver power from the power source to a load, or control the power to a load. One or more electrical wiring devices can be mounted to a device box depending on the size of the device box. Once the electrical wiring device is installed inside a device box, a cover plate is disposed over the electrical wiring device to complete the installation. Electrical wiring devices may include, for example, receptacles, switches, fault circuit interrupters, such as ground fault circuit interrupters and arc fault circuit interrupters, transient surge suppressors, such as transient voltage surge suppressors, occupancy sensors, dimmers, timers, and low voltage devices, such as USB chargers, etc.
Generally, the wiring terminals used to connect the electrical wiring devices to the electrical distribution system can be made via binding screws, which may be color coded to meet electrical codes. There may be one or more binding screws for a line side phase (or hot) connections, one or more binding screws for a neutral connections, and a binding screw for a ground connection, which may be connected to the yoke or mounting strap of the electrical wiring device. As an example, for a duplex receptacle there would generally be two binding screws for the line phase connection, two binding screws for the neutral connection, and a binding screw on the yoke for the ground connection. In such duplex receptacles, the binding screws for the line side phase connection are generally on one side of the receptacle, and the binding screws for the neutral connection are generally on the other side of the receptacle. The line side phase binding screws connect to one or more line side phase conductors of the electrical distribution system, e.g. a household wiring system. The neutral binding screws connect to one or more neutral conductors of the electrical distribution system, and the ground binding screw connects to the ground conductor of the electrical distribution system.
To connect the conductors to the wiring terminals, many commercially available electrical devices have apertures in a rear surface of the device for receiving such conductors for connection to the wiring terminals. As a result, conductors connected to the wiring terminal extend perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the electrical wiring device creating a large, obtrusive device footprint making it difficult to use such electrical wiring devices in wiring boxes, wiring raceways or other spaces that are not sufficiently deep to easily install and retain the electrical wiring devices.